Display and dispensing carton



April 12, 1955 w. J. WELLS 2,706,066

DISPLAY AND DISPENSING CARTON Filed July 7, 1952 2'Sheets-Sheet 1 ,Z/INVENTOR ATTORNEYS April 12, 1955 w. J. WELLS 2,706,066

DISPLAY AND DISPENSING CARTON Filed July 7, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 emu/u.PINK I BRIDAL rum ll l| ATTORNEYS nited States Patent DISPLAYANDDISPENSING CARTON William John Wells, Buifalo, N. Y., assignor to F.N. Burt Company, Inc., Buffalo, N. Y., a corporation of DelawareApplication July 7,1952, Serial No. 297,457

3 Claims. (Cl. 221-92) This invention relates to. packing, shipping,display, and dispensing cartons of the type in' which vendible articlesor small package units may be packed for shipment and sale, the cartonsvpresenting the articles or goods" in. an attractive display in theretailers storev and permitting the dispensing of items therefrom to thepurchaser.

The general object of the invention is the provision of a novel andimproved" display and dispensing container of the class described" whichis of simple construction and assembly, which is easily and economicallymanufactured, and which greatly facilitates the packing of articles andpackages of different grades, colors, flavors, or other characteristics,so. that they may be selectively dispensed in accordance with thepreferences of the customers.v

In its preferred embodiment the invention contemplates the provision ofan. outer enveloping carton member having suitable closure flaps at thetop and bottom there of, and an inner carton member comprising one ormore trays each containing a plurality of articles or packages ofcommodities of the same characteristics but differing in suchcharacteristics from generally similar commodities in the other trays.Registering'openings in the several interior trays or enclosures and inthe outer enclosing carton; member are provided whereby individualarticles selected from the difierent trays may be removed, Withoutdisturbing articles in. the other trays or interior compartments. I

Provision is preferably made" for the several groups of articles of thesame characteristics contained respectively in the several internaltrays to be arranged in a vertical stack, with the dispensing openingsopposite the bottommost article in the particular tray, so that when thebottommost article is removed through the appropriate opening, thesuperposed items will descend by gravity so that. there will always bean article or package positioned opposite. the particular opening; untilthe supply of articles in the tray is exhausted.

Additionally, the invention. preferably provides other openings in theperiphery of the various sections of the dispenser and opposite the.position of the" lowermost article of each series, for insertion of thelingers in order to eject or withdraw the article from the dispenser.

Other features which may be provided in the practice of. the presentinvention, include the provision of means for suspending the dispensingcarton, means for linking the interior trays together, means for raisingthe: position of the lowermost tray above the bottom of the dispensingcontainer, and closure means for the various parts of the device.

Other objects and features. of novelty will be apparent from thefollowing specification when read in connection with the accompanyingdrawings in which one embodiment of the invention is illustrated by wayof. example.

In the drawings:

Figure l is a perspective view of a dispensing; carton embodying, theprinciples of the invention, the thickness: of the sheet materialofwhich the various parts of the carton are preferably composed beingsomewhat exaggerated for the sake of clearness of illustration on thescale on which the drawings are made;

Figure 2.is a vertical or longitudinal central section from front torear of the carton shown in Figure 1, as taken on line 22 of thatfigure;

2,706,066 Patented Apr. 12, 1955 Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspective;view of. the bottom of the external wrapper portion of the dispensershowing the flap closure means;

Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view on a smaller scale showing amodification of the top closure flapfor the purpose of suspending thedispensing carton from a Wall or other support;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of one of. the individual trays which goto make up the interior containing and. segregating means for thevariousarticles;

Figure 6 is a plan view of a blank from which the tray shown in Figure 3is made;

Figure 7 is a transverse vertical sectional view of a tray unit taken online 77 of Figure 5;

Figure 8 is a view in rear elevation of one of the tray units with oneof the closing, flaps in extended position; and

Figure 9 is a perspective view of a filler elementj adapted to bedisposed within. the bottom portion of. the carton to support thelowermost tray unit in' a somewhat elevated position. i

For purposes of general reference, the novel dispensing combination isindicated as a Whole by the numeral 10 and, as probably best shown inFigure 2 of the drawings, the combination comprises an externalenveloping carton member 11 which in the preferred embodiment comprisesa vertically elongated rectangular prismatic box having a rear wall 12,side walls 13 and 14, and a front Wall 15. The outer enclosing cartonmember is also provided with a top tuck-in closure flap 18 having theusual tab 19 at the forward edge thereof insertable within the containerin the normal closed position thereof.

The closure flap arrangement at the bottom of the container is shownvery clearly in Figures 2 and 3 of the: drawings, the bottom tuck-inflap 20 being hinged at 21 to the opposite edge of the carton from thehinge point of the top flap l8, and the tab 22' being insertable in theusual way after the side flaps 23 and 24; are closed and interlocked.These side flaps are provided with interlocking tongues, the onevdesignated 25 being a part of the flap 24 and the tongue 26' beingintegral with the flap 23. It will be readily understood how theinterengaging edges of the flaps 23 and 24. are constructed when it isunderstood that the outer edge of the flap 23 comprises thesubstantially rectilinear edge portion 23, the tongue 26, and theremaining substantially straight portion 29. The outer edge of the flap24 is constituted by the substantially straight edge portion 30, thetongue 25, and the rectilinear remaining portion 31. The pointdesignated 32 represents an acute angled notch which is provided betweenthe tongue 25 and the edge portion 30 of one of the flaps and the Eongueportion 26 and the edge portion 29 of the other The novel dispensingcontainer may be disposed upon a table or counter as suggested in,Figure l or it may be suspended from a wall or other support asindicated rather diagrammatically in Figure 4. For the latter purposethe upper flap 18 is provided with a crease 35 whereby it may be foldedsharply as indicated in Figure 4 and this brings into close registry theholes 36. formed in the top flap upon either side of the crease line 35and centrally of the top of the carton. When the flap 18 is opened outand the holes 36 are in registry, the entire carton may be suspendedfrom a nail or hook 37 received through the holes or openings 36. Inalternative arrangements a cord or ribbon may be passed through theopenings 36 and the carton suspended thereby from any suitable support.

Disposed within the outer enveloping carton section 11 is acompartmented pre-assembled internal carton sec.- tion which may bedesignated generally by the reference numeral 40 and which in theillustrated embodiment comprises three separately formed butinterconnected trays or container elements 42, one of these units beingshown in perspective in Figure 5 of the drawings. Each of the units 42is adapted to be packed before assembly at the particular department orsource of manufacture or supply of the articles or sales units havingthe same characteristics, and then the several trays, each containing aplurality of units which differ in a major characteristic from the unitsin the other trays forming the insertable multiple member or cartridge40, are brought together and interlocked and then inserted within theouter carton member 11.

The particular construction and arrangement of the individualarticle-containing trays will now be described. These trays are made upfrom the blanks 42A illustrated in Figure 6 of the drawings. The topwall of a tray is shown at 45, a side wall at 46, the bottom wall at 47,and another side wall at 48. A flap 49 is provided to overlap the edgeof the wall 45 and to be glued or otherwise permanently secured thereto.The trays are all openfaced, not being provided with a front wall. Therear wall of each tray is comprised by the interlocking and overlappingof the various flaps 50, 51, 52, and 53. The illustrations in Figures 7and 8 show very clearly how these flaps are interlocked to form the rearwall of the tray. The two flaps 50 and 52 are folded down into the planeof the rear wall and the notches 56 and 57 together form a rectan ularopening 60. Each of the two side flaps 51 and 53 is provided withoppositely extending tabs 62 and 63, the length of the flap at thetabbed portion thereof being slightly greater than the length of therectangular opening 60. Thus when the two flaps 51 and 53 are benttoward and beyond the plane of the rear wall of the tray the tabs 62 and63 will snap past the end edges of the opening 60 and lodge behind theflaps 50 and 52 and will be securely held in closed position asindicated in Figure 7 of the drawings.

For linking the trays together so that they may be more convenientlyinserted in the outer casing 11, the top wall 45 of each trav isprovided with a transverse slot 65 and the bottom wall with a curvedslot 66, the effect of which is to provide a bendable tab 67 forinsertion in the slot 65 of the next lower tray.

As shown best in Figure 1 of the drawings, the outer container section11 is provided at spaced points throu hout its hei ht with cut-awayportions which transsect the front wall of the container and also extendfor a considerable distance along each side wall 13 and 14. The frontWall portion of this cut-away is indicated at 70 and the side wallportions at 71. The cut-aways 70, 71 are provided adjacent the lowermostportions of each of the interior trays 42 and are of a heightapproximating that of the articles or packages to be dispensed, theseitems, for the purpose of illustration, being small cylindrical fiatboxes 75 of face powder. As shown in Figure 2, there are four of thesepackages within each of the trays 42, the packages beingstackedvertically and the bottommost one being visible through the frontopenings 70 in the outer container. As previously described, the trays42 have no front walls and therefore there is no obstruction to thepassage of the lowermost article 75 forwardly through the opening 70.

To assist in ejecting the box or article, side openings 78 of somewhatlimited extent are provided in the walls 46 and 48 of the tray 42 intowhich the fingers of the purchaser may be inserted in order to removethe article 75 through the front opening. As each of the lowermostarticles is dispensed. the superposed articles descend within the trays,until the contents of the particular trays are exhausted.

As previously explained, the articles in the several trays 42 differ inessential characteristics, whether in color, flavor, or grade, and thedifferent trays 42 may be filled in portions of the manufacturing orassembling plant where the items of the same characteristic are producedor stored. Then the trays from these different sources are broughttogether and interlinked and inserted in the outer cartons 11. Thenature of the contents of the several compartments of the dispenser maybe indicated upon the front wall 15 of the outer container section 11as. for example, the tint designations 80 of the face powder within theboxes 75. It will be noted that the boxes obtainable from the uppermostcompartment are designated Bridal Pink; those from the intermediatecompartment Natural, and those from the lowermost compartment Brunette.In order to ensure that the proper trays 42 containing the articles ofthe externally posted descriptions are placed within the container inthe proper order, the trays are also marked with similar legends as at82 in Figure 5.

In order to prevent inadvertent ejection of the lowermost article 75through the opening 70 if the entire dispensing arrangement were tiltedforwardly, a very slightly protruding lip may be formed on the uppermargin of the front opening 70, this lip exerting only a slight pressureupon the box 75, which incidentally may be domed slightly as shown, andthis pressure will be sufficient to prevent the box from falling out ofthe carton but will not be enough to interfere with the purposefulremoval of the box or article by the fingers when they are insertedthrough the side openings 71, 78.

In order to somewhat strengthen and reinforce the bottom construction ofthe dispenser and to raise the lowermost tray 42 to a position where thebottom article 75 may be withdrawn through the front opening 70, whichis slightly above the bottom of the container, a filler element or padis provided. This pad is merely a hollow block formed of a foldedcontinuous strip of sheet material and inserted in the bottom of thecontainer. Overlapping flaps 91 and 92 forming an end wall of the fillerpad 90 may be glued together in order to retain the pad in set-upcondition.

It will be understood that various changes and modifications may be madein the embodiments illustrated and described herein without departingfrom the scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.

, Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new anddesired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A display and dispensing carton for the selective dispensing of itemssuch as articles or packages from a plurality of supplies of such itemssegregated according to characteristics, said carton comprising, incombination, an outer container having dispensing openings through whichsaid articles may be removed in its front side wall at vertically spacedpoints along the height thereof, a removable inner container having aplurality of superposed compartments separated by horizontal partitions,each compartment adapted to contain superposed items of characteristicsdifferent from those of items in other compartments, openings in thefront side wall of said inner container each affording access to one ofsaid compartments and registering at least partially with one of saidvertically spaced openings in the outer container, and registering sideopenings in the two side walls adjacent the front side wall of both theinner and outer containers at the same level as the respective openingsin the front side wall of the outer container, the side openings in theouter compartment being extensions of the front openings but the sideopenings in the inner container being separate openings from the frontopenings therein, said inner container side openings thus being spacedfrom the front wall of the carton.

2. The carton as in claim 1 wherein the upper front margin of each ofthe openings in the outer container has an integral dependent lipthereon projecting slightly into the path of the items upon removal fromsaid carton to prevent inadvertent ejection of the lowermost of saiditems from said compartments but permitting deliberate removal of theitems therefrom.

3. In a carton comprising outer and inner containers having registeringdispensing openings in the respective front walls thereof, theimprovement comprising openings in the side walls of said outercompartment adiacent the front wall thereof which are extensions of saiddispensing opening, and openings in the side walls of said innercompartment adjacent the front wall thereof which register with the sidewall openings of said outer container but are separate from the innercompartment side wall openings, the inner container side wall openingsthus being spaced from the front wall of the carton.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,898,056 Johnson Feb. 21, 1933 1,915,341 Walker June 27, 1933 1,934,362Levkoff Nov. 7, 1933 1,956,642 Einson a May 1, 1934 1,973,641 Lock Sept.11, 1934 2,046,751 Reichel July 7, 1936 2,214,380 Nisbet Sept. 10, 1940FOREIGN PATENTS 255,698 Italy Nov. 3, 1927

